We Almost Lost Him
by warelander
Summary: Takes place after the Light Novel 'Sig's Secret', after being hit with the revelation that Sig had essentially cheated death, Arle is rather shaken by the events of the day.


**Yay new fic and I won't lie, it's very self-indulgent.**

 **To give some basic context I was always a big fan of the dynamic between Arle and Sig that 15th was starting to establish and thus disappointed when later games ended giving them far, far less interaction.**

 **Sig's Secret did nothing to ease that disappointment, given that Arle and Ringo pretty much only exist in that story to be cheerleaders for Amitie, with seemingly no desire to do or find out something about Sig's odd condition without Amitie's imput, which would be OOC even if you were to ignore any past history either of them has had with Sig. Outside of the one time where they visit Feli they never even show anything resembling emotion on the matter, we don't even get the clichéd ''get angry over a missunderstanding'' stick when Sig quits on Amitie and the cafe.**

 **So either way, this is just a brief little moment that I'd like to think happened after the novel ended.**

* * *

 **We Almost Lost Him**

 _''Is he alright?''_

 _Having only just arrived in the last room deep within the Sealed Ruins along with Ringo, Arle carefully examined the familiar bug loving lad that she and her friends were setting out to help. It seemed that the calamity that Feli was speaking of was over, looking at him Sig seemed no different from usual, sleeping peacefully on the floor while sitting with his eyes open, which made it easy to see that his right hand and eye had returned to normal._

 _Right across from the boy were a kneeling Amitie and Lemres who stood right behind her, both looked visibly exhausted, but also relieved. After catching her breath Amitie finally spoke up. ''Yup, everything's all hunky dory!'' The blond girl proclaimed excitedly while doing her signature V sign. ''Still though...'' She continued, as the expression on her face became noticably more somber. ''We ended this not a moment too soon, we almost lost him''._

 _''The red shall crush the clue...that's what the unnerving divining girl said.'' Ringo mused, more to herself then anyone in the room, Lemres nodded, as he dusted off his hat ''Yes indeed, the powers that were aweakend by the potion would have consumed Sig's true self, if Amitie hadn't intervened.''_

 _A sudden reveleation, that almost made Arle jump for a bit, looking at the boy again and seeing him act like his usual self she found it hard to think that just a few minutes ago, he had essentially cheated death._

 _''...Would have consumed his true self?''_

* * *

After the many trials and tribulations of the day the cafe that Amitie and co were tasked to work on, as part of the big Festival in the Primp Town Park proved to be a resounding success, after hours of cheery live music, dancing and other festive activities the crowds of pleased townspeople left the park one by one, as an increasing amount of stands closing shop. The cafe which was led by Ms. Accord's class, with the assistance of Arle and Ringo was among them, with most of the teens already having left the area to make it back home.

One exception to this was Arle, who at that moment, could be found in a nearby tent, having just changed back from the waitress outfit she was given to her usual wear. Carbuncle watched his owner as she put the neatly folded cloths on a pile of other used outfits, with exhaustion being written all over her face, it had been a long day after all, though there was something about the look in her eyes that made Carbuncle wonder. She seemed contemplative, occasionally zoning out for a bit, still keeping a positive attitude, only to shift to a sudden and brief frown on occasion, almost as if two different thoughts were wrestling for dominance, but struggled to come to a conclusion and it had been like this ever since they left the Sealed Ruins earlier.''Guu Guu?'' the little mammal like creature called out this owner, who turned to face him, giving a small smile as she picked him up, holding him in her arms in a manner that almost made her look like she was trying to keep him from being snatched away from her.

''Ah Carby, it's nothing, I just need some sleep, it's about time we got home.'' Stepping outside the tent Arle instinctively put one hand in front of her eyes, to shield herself from the incoming sun. A late afternoon in the middle of summer is still nothing to sneeze at after all, as the temperatures still remained high, on the flipsite the scenery of the park getting colored in orange as the dawn was setting in would always be an undeniably gorgeous sight, giving the entire area a very comfortable and homely feeling.

Taking into the pleasant atmosphere for a bit, Arle closed her eyes and took a few relaxed breaths, before setting course to home herself, not really focusing on anything, but the monotony of her movements, it didn't seem like any of her friends were still around so she wasn't paying much attention to her surroundings, that was until she thought to hear someone call her name. Turning around Arle quickly recognized the source of these calls, which even at a decent distance, wasn't much of a challenge, after all how many people in Primp had the same combination of bright cyan hair, a red left hand and a somewhat clumsy walk cycle?

Indeed it was Sig who had been calling for her, walking at a noticably slow pace and making a weak waving motion with his right hand, his movement was still rather shaky looking, signifying that he was still very drained from the events of the past days. Noticing this the girl wasted no time and went straight into his direction, in a uncharacteristically tense fashion, as she picked up on speed with every step, quickly reaching him. ''Sig, what are you doing? You really shouldn't run around on your own yet!'' 'It's alright...'' The spacey boy tried to assert, while obviously having to focus very hard on standing straight. 'I'm just a little dizzy, but Glasses and Waffine kept saying that I should keep sitting dow..-huh?'' Sig was caught a little off guard when Arle suddenly grapped his arm and the rather strict look she gave him didn't help either. ''They were right though, now come on before you collapse or something.''

Not finding it in him to disobey Sig let Arle guide him under a nearby tree, sitting down to her left, while Carbuncle lay down to the right of the blue magic girl. Releasing his arm Arle slowly calmed herself, leaning herself against the tree and taking in the cool breeze of the wind, that could be much more easily enjoyed in the shadows. She didn't mean to use that kind of tone on Sig, it just couldn't be helped, his health was still a touchy subject to her. Trying to to think of something to ease the situation her mouth formed into a small smirk. ''You know Sig...'' she mumbled, just audible enough for him to hear it, before leaning herself forward right next to him and meeting his puzzled looking gaze. ''For someone so easy-going you can sure be stubborn.'' Changing his confused expression with a calm one and smiling himself the spacey bug lover just uttered a brief 'I guess so.'' after which the two found themselves in sudden, but also fairly content silence.

With both teens just looking at each other Arle couldn't help but to notice Sig's eyes, they were always half-closed and sleepy looking, but this time even after two seperate occasions of him dozing off, they were still blood-shot and had visible bags underneath them, one had to wonder if the boy got much of any sleep these past days.''He must have been too scared of what happened to him...'' Arle thought to herself. A part of her would have liked to comfort him in some way, though he seemed to be perfectly alright again now that everything was over, so he really didn't need it at this pont. At the same time it was that exact mindset that brought back a whole bunch of uncomfortable thoughts, that had been haunting her for most of the day. Arle swiftly turned to just stare at her boots awkwardly, trying to secure that Sig wouldn't notice any changes in her expressions.

''What's wrong Arle?'' Those three words were enough to make Arle tense up greatly, she knew very well that Sig could be deceptivly attentive when he needed to be, it figured that the one time she would have wanted him to be oblivious he'd catch on in no time. ''I don't know what you mean, I'm fine!'' she belted out defensively, trying to be as convincing as possible. An act that was made rather difficult when she dared to look at Sig again, his face barely moved, looking stoic as expected, however his eyes, despite how heavy and tired they clearly were, kept an unfailingly focused tone to them, which as far as Sig was concerned, was pretty much the closest equivalent of an accusing glare that he could muster.

He didn't buy it, Arle knew it as well as Sig did, there really wasn't any point in trying to hide it any further, doing so would just build unnecessary tension that neither of them needed. ''Guess I was on point with the stubborn bit'' the girl quipped, more to ease herself into this then Sig, this would be a bit tough to talk about. ''I-I still feel bad about what happened to you...'' ''I'm fine Arle, believe me...'' Sig tried to assure his friend, placing a hand on her shoulder. ''I know that, it's just that I focused so much on the whole cafe thing and getting it all done in time, that I brushed off the things that Amitie told me were happening with you and you just quitting the project as things that we could deal with later, but then Feli mentioned this calamity and the danger that had seemingly befallen you and then Lemres said that you almost lost your sense of self... '' Sig listened in silence, as he noticed Arle's voice drifting more and more into an increasingly somber and contemplative tone and her eyes refused to meet his, focusing just on the ground.

''I just wish I would have done something sooner you know?'' ''It's really not your fault.'' Sig tried to counter. ''When my other arm started to get weird I was hoping that it would go away...when it didn't I ran away without telling anyone, because I didn't want to trouble my friends...'' Tightening his grip on her shoulder slightly for emphasis he continued. ''You did everything you could. Ami told me how you and Ringo helped her through it all.'' ''...I Suppose,'' Arle sighed, crossing her arms and slowly reverting her gaze from the ground back to the half-demon boy. ''And I know that there's no point to beat myself up over it, it's all still so sudden,maybe I just need to sleep it all over and by tomorrow I'll feel less bad about it...'' Feeling herself ease up again Arle could sense a genuine smile form on her face, the tension that kept haunting her all this time finally fading away, bit by bit, as she kept her gaze focused on Sig, ''Besides, even just being able to talk with you about it like this helped a lot.''

Sig returned the smile, catching Arle a bit off guard when his hand went across both her shoulders, though she quickly embraced it, taking a brief glance at Carbuncle, who had long since fallen asleep, before allowing herself to lean closer to him and enjoy the peace and closeness to her friend. It made it easier to remind herself that, despite everything that happened, he was still there and tomorrow was another day.

A new chapter in everyone's lifes, free from the struggles and worries of yesterday...

 **The End**


End file.
